When driving a vehicle (car, truck, SUV, crossover, etc) how aggressively do you drive and what are some of the side-effects?
I only try to whip the aggression when it’s needed. I’m perfectly happy to be the second guy in line when merging; I’m at peace yielding when I’m turning left; I’m perfectly calm if someone passes my on the highway.
But if you must be the first person in that merge line - even when you’re 30 feet behind me - or when you have no clue that left turning traffic must yield, or you’re driving 10 miles under the limit in front of me … I tend to get a little lead-footy.
I’ve only gotten one ticket, over twenty years ago, for speeding. My car gets lousy gas mileage period, but I get what is expected, not worse.
I drive fast, but I don’t tailgate, cut people off, make reckless left turns etc.
I speed all the time. I was booked a month ago.
I’m an excellent driver.
I drive moderately aggressive, but really only when others are going well under the limit or other behaviours that are inhibiting traffic. My last ticket was for illegal u-turn and no seatbelt. Before that it was years.
I’m mostly a very mellow driver. Then again, a Scion xA isn’t exactly the car for a badass… Probably the nastiest thing I do is not let an idiot merge in when he/she refuses to play nice like all the other drivers. You take your turn like everyone else, dammit! You don’t get to jump the line just because you feel entitled.
I rarely exceed the speed limit by more that 5 MPH and I stay to the right. I signal, I accelerate and decelerate smoothly. I’ve never flipped off another driver. I do admit to questioning the parentage of certain other operators, but it’s within the privacy of my own vehicle.
My observations over the years have been that those who drive like idiots generally are waiting when I get to the next traffic light. Hardly seems worth the aggravation they cause themselves.
Pretty much this. Different situations cause for different driving techniques. Driving in Denver is way different than driving in Breckenridge.
I’ve been in 4 car crashes in 20 years of driving. I’m a boring passive driver. My work commute is about one mile, so I don’t drive very much anyway. I last got a ticket in the 1980s when I didn’t know about small town speed traps.
I’m only aggressive in a passive way, as in slowing down when somebody is tailgating me in a residential area. Haven’t had a ticket since about 1990, when driving a bit too fast on a county road in Minnesota. Haven’t had an accident since 1964. I get great mileage no matter what, since I drive a Prius.
Haven’t had a ticket yet. AFAIK, as long as you’re not a maniac, and don’t actually pass a cop on the highway, they’ll ignore you up to about 80 MPH. Good thing, as the commute traffic flow often gets to 75 in a 60 zone.
What insurer do you work for, Hilary Algar?
^ this means my comment is in jest
Isn’t that a lot? I think that’s a lot. My only wreck was when I was 17, and I haven’t had a collision in 13 years. This needs another poll!
Depends on what you mean by “aggressive”. I will punch it on highway on-ramps (partly for the rush, yes, but also being pragmatic too so that I am up to highway flow speed ASAP-I consider people who dawdle at 45 MPH at the merge in that situation as being far more dangerous). I will take some corners a little fast, if conditions are good, nobody else is around, and there isn’t a 1,000 foot dropoff. But I don’t tailgate, I don’t weave in and out of traffic, I’ll yield to someone else typically as my first impulse, and I don’t use my phone while in motion. I voted “slightly aggressive”.
I’m not aggressive at all. I rarely go over the speed limit and then it’s less than ten mph. I am the one who annoys other people by allowing people in but I just don’t see what the big deal is. If people left on time they wouldn’t need to be in such a hurry.
I’ve never had a ticket or an accident in 25 years of driving. I got a parking ticket once when my car broke down in a school zone. I probably could have fought it but eh.
If I’m in my daughter’s car I get good mileage but in the van it’s not so great, but you can’t expect much from an '88 Econoline.
Asking people to rate own their driving is going to be pretty pointless no matter how you do it–this poll seems either to be some kind of psychology experiment, or to have been designed on a cocktail napkin during a lull at the bar.
I drive too aggressively; I’m actively working on becoming less aggressive behind the wheel. I don’t get a lot of tickets (my last one was about two years ago for rolling through a stop sign, and before that, a couple of years ago making a right turn where it wasn’t allowed). My repercussions for driving too aggressively are that I get too upset, and I upset people around me.
I’m totally laid back as a driver.
People get themselves worked up and so pissed off and in a bad mood all day, dodging and weaving through traffic, swearing at other cars - and they probably beat me by what, a few minutes a trip*? Relax, put on an interesting podcast or good music, and get there when you get there.
The first two “do not pick this option” got 7 votes, but the last one got 8. One guy was able to resist pushing that button twice, but the third time you tempted him, he just couldn’t resist.
*If that. It’s funny how you always tend to see the guy who was weaving through traffic and cutting you off to get ahead of you stuck at the same red light you are after that.
Mr. Cruise Control is my bestest friend. He works better than all the radar detectors in the world in terms of keeping me from getting tickets.
I’m somewhat aggressive, but you have to be here. By aggressive, I mean I will push my way in to traffic if someone is being an asshole, I step on it on the on ramp to get up to speed, and I get annoyed by slow drivers on the left or people who don’t know how to merge properly.
My last ticket was right after I got my driver’s license 15 years ago for not wearing my seatbelt properly (I didn’t have the shoulder strap on). I’ve never been in an accident.
I’m a really laid-back driver, but I do almost all - okay, absolutely all - of my driving on country roads or small-town roads. I drive just a bit above the speed limit and stay in the right lane, use my signals religiously, move over for stalled/emergency vehicles, etc. I refuse to get mad while driving these days, but in my youth I frequently had one hand on the wheel and the other flipping some poor schmuck the bird.
I have never had a traffic ticket. I get 34 mpg.
I think I must be boring.